Stepan reports Q4 adjusted EPS 33c, consensus 37c

Reports Q4 revenue $532.1M, consensus $534.52M. “The company had a challenging 2023 due to a slow down in demand across most end use markets and significant customer and channel inventory destocking. While we believe the negative impacts of destocking are mostly behind us, we continue to experience significant destocking within our agricultural business and expect this to continue through the first half of 2024,” said Scott Behrens, President and CEO. “Specific to the fourth quarter, overall volume increased 3% versus the prior year driven by double digit growth in Rigid Polyols volumes at improved margins. Surfactants experienced strong volume growth in Personal Care, Industrial Cleaning and to our Distribution partners. Surfactant unit margins were lower versus the prior year due to a less favorable product mix and actions taken to recover share loss in Latin America due to lower priced imported products. MCT unit margins within our Specialty Product segment were lower year over year as we worked through the remainder of our high-cost inventory in a competitive market environment. We are pleased that actions to control expenses and lower inventories, coupled with lower sequential capital spending, led to $22.3 million of positive free cash flow in the quarter.”